CNY Dinner Singapore

What Is a Chinese New Year Company Dinner?

A Chinese New Year company dinner is one of the most meaningful gatherings a Singapore organisation can host. It brings your team together at the start of the lunar new year to celebrate the year ahead, honour shared achievements, and set a collective intention for the months to come — all wrapped in tradition, food, and genuine festivity.

For companies with Chinese-majority or multicultural workforces, the CNY dinner carries real weight. It's not just a party. The lo hei toss, the lion dance entrance, the ang bao lucky draws — these rituals signal to your people that leadership understands and honours the culture. Done well, a CNY dinner builds loyalty and belonging that a standard team building session alone cannot replicate.

At Get Out! Events, we've planned and produced Chinese New Year dinners across Singapore since 2012 — from intimate 50-person gatherings at heritage restaurant venues to 600-person hotel ballroom productions with lion dance troupes, live wok stations, and CNY-themed game shows. We handle everything from brief to final bow: venue, programme, entertainment, décor, lo hei coordination, emcee, catering, and lucky draws. You focus on celebrating with your people.

Every CNY dinner we produce is built around your company's size, culture, and budget. No templated packages. No off-the-shelf formats. Just a well-run evening that your team will associate with your company's best traditions for years to come. As a full-service corporate event organiser, we manage your entire events calendar — from the CNY dinner in January through to the year end party in December.

Our CNY Dinner Services

We produce the full programme — from the first planning call to the last lucky draw. Here's what a complete CNY dinner production includes:

• Lo Hei Ceremony Coordination — The yu sheng toss is the centrepiece of any CNY dinner. We script and produce a timed lo hei ceremony that works for your group size — from a single communal toss for smaller teams to multi-table toss sequences for ballroom-scale events. Full ingredient spread, custom prosperity phrases, emcee scripting, and timed photography cue included.
• Lion Dance Booking & Coordination — Lion dance is non-negotiable for many organisations. We source and brief experienced lion dance troupes for venue blessing, table rounds, and headline performance moments. All performers are vetted for corporate settings and coordinated with your venue's noise and space constraints.
• CNY-Themed Entertainment & Games — We design interactive CNY game segments that work for corporate audiences: red packet challenges, CNY trivia game shows, calligraphy stations, fortune-telling booths, and team-based festive challenges that draw participation without embarrassing anyone. Entertainment is calibrated for your audience — senior management dinner or company-wide celebration, we pitch it right.
• Ang Bao Lucky Draw Management — Lucky draws are the anchor of any CNY dinner. We manage the full draw sequence: prize sourcing recommendations, digital draw software or physical ballot boxes, emcee scripting for tension and crowd energy, and draw logistics that keep the programme moving without dead time. Red packet presentation formats available. We use digital event technology tools for live audience engagement and draw management.
• Venue Sourcing — Chinese Restaurants & Hotel Ballrooms — We source and negotiate venues across Singapore's top Chinese banquet restaurants, hotel ballrooms, and function spaces. Our venue shortlist covers the full range: premium hotel options at Orchard, Marina Bay, and Sentosa; established Chinese restaurants with private dining rooms; and unique heritage spaces for companies wanting something distinctly memorable. See our Singapore event venues guide for the full range.
• CNY Décor & Theme Execution — Table centrepieces with red and gold floral arrangements, lantern installations, CNY backdrops, zodiac-themed stage dressing, and venue transformation packages. Décor scales to your budget without looking cheap at either end of the range.
• Professional Emcee Services — Your emcee anchors the evening and drives the programme. Our corporate emcees are experienced in CNY dinner formats — they know how to work a lo hei toss, manage multi-language announcements where needed, and keep the energy festive without becoming pantomime.
• AV & Staging Production — LED screens for lucky draw displays, wireless microphone systems, ambient festive lighting, and live feed management for photo moments. Our professional event equipment is available for all venue types. We conduct a full AV check before doors open.
• Catering Coordination — Authentic Chinese banquet menu curation, halal supplement coordination, dietary requirement management, and service timing built into the programme flow. We work with your venue's F&B team or source external catering where required.

CNY Dinner Programme: What a Great Evening Looks Like

A CNY dinner that flows well has a structure. Here's a typical run-of-show we'd build for a 200-person company dinner:

1. Guest Arrival & Pre-Dinner Reception (30 min) — CNY background music, calligraphy station or photo booth, welcome drinks. MD or senior leader greeting at the entrance for key guests. Sets a warm, culturally intentional tone before the programme begins.
2. Lion Dance Venue Blessing & Table Blessing (15–20 min) — Lion dance troupe enters with drums and cymbals. Venue blessing followed by table rounds where guests receive hong bao "bites" from the lions for good fortune. High-energy opening that settles the room into celebration mode.
3. Welcome Address (5–10 min) — MD or CEO welcome speech. CNY wishes for staff and families. Sets the cultural tone — gratitude, ambition, togetherness.
4. Lo Hei Ceremony (15–20 min) — Emcee-led communal toss. Ingredient introduction, communal chanting of prosperity phrases, photography window, and communal toss. For 200+ pax, we sequence multi-table simultaneous tosses with emcee direction.
5. Chinese Banquet Dinner (90 min) — Multi-course banquet service. Entertainment interludes between key courses — cultural performances, mini game segments, or guest presentations.
6. CNY Game Show / Interactive Segment (20–30 min) — Team-based CNY trivia, red packet challenge, or custom game show. Keeps energy high during the post-main course lull. We design the segment to work for your team's age range and culture.
7. Awards & Recognition (optional, 15–30 min) — Long service awards, performance recognition, or year-in-review highlights. Often placed mid-programme to maintain attention. We script and produce the whole segment.
8. Ang Bao Lucky Draw (30–45 min) — Structured draw sequence building to headline prizes. Emcee-managed for crowd energy. Red packet presentation format available. Digital or physical ballot options.
9. Close & Final Lion Dance (10 min) — Send-off blessing by the lion dance troupe. MD closing remarks. CNY wishes for the road. Guests leave with the energy high — not with a slow wind-down.

CNY Dinner Venue Options in Singapore

Venue choice is the first real decision in CNY dinner planning — and the one that most directly signals your company's intent. Here's how we think about the main options:

• Hotel Ballrooms (80–800 pax) — Singapore's five-star hotel ballrooms offer the most reliable quality baseline: in-house AV, experienced banquet teams, and menus that can accommodate CNY set dinners, halal options, and dietary requirements. Options include Marina Bay Sands, Grand Hyatt, Shangri-La, Marriott, and a wide range of four-star properties across Orchard, Clarke Quay, and Marina. We negotiate F&B minimums and AV inclusions on your behalf.
• Chinese Restaurants with Private Dining (30–200 pax) — For CNY dinners where authenticity matters more than production scale, established Chinese restaurants with private dining rooms offer a genuinely festive setting. Options range from heritage Cantonese and Hokkien restaurants in Chinatown to premium Peranakan dining in Katong and mid-tier chains across the island. We identify venues with the right room size, noise allowances for lion dance, and banquet menus that justify the setting.
• Dedicated Event Spaces (100–600 pax) — Purpose-built corporate event spaces and function halls give you more design freedom and often lower per-head costs than hotel ballrooms at the same headcount. We source options across the CBD, Harbourfront, and Jurong for companies outside the central corridor.
• Company Premises (50–500 pax) — Some organisations hold their CNY dinner in-house: office atrium, canteen, rooftop, or carpark. We've produced full-scale CNY dinners in warehouse spaces and corporate lobbies. Requires more production effort but delivers a distinctly branded experience and removes venue cost entirely.

CNY venue availability in Singapore tightens significantly from late January. January and February dates at popular properties book 3–5 months in advance. Companies planning October or November should already be confirming venue holds.

Why Get Out! Events for Your CNY Dinner

CNY dinner planning involves more variables than most corporate events. Vendor sourcing (lion dance, caterer, AV, décor), cultural authenticity, programme timing, and managing family-inclusive expectations across a diverse workforce — it adds up quickly. We manage your CNY dinner as part of a full-year corporate events programme — including your annual dinner, company retreat, and family day.

• Specialist programme design — We design CNY entertainment and game segments that work for corporate settings. Not the generic formats you've seen at every industry dinner. We build programmes around your company's actual people.
• Lion dance and lo hei coordination experience — We've produced these rituals for groups of 30 to 600. We know the timing, the photography windows, the sound levels, and how to make a lo hei feel like a genuine cultural moment rather than an awkward obligation.
• Vendor network — Vetted lion dance troupes, calligraphers, cultural performers, Chinese restaurant partners, and CNY décor suppliers. No cold-calling. No surprises on event night.
• Full accountability — We're your single point of contact across every vendor and every moving part. If anything needs fixing on the night, our on-ground team handles it. You shouldn't be on a phone with a caterer at 7pm.
• Planning lead time management — We flag CNY venue booking windows early and help you secure dates before the market tightens. Year after year, we've seen companies miss their preferred venues because they started planning in December.

CNY Dinner Pricing in Singapore

Pricing varies with venue choice, headcount, entertainment scope, and CNY calendar proximity. Lion dance and quality Chinese banquets command a premium in January and February. For a full picture of Singapore corporate event costs, see our event pricing guide. Contact our team for a detailed proposal specific to your headcount and date.

For related formats: see our Annual Dinner Singapore service for awards-focused productions, our Year End Party Singapore service for year-end celebrations, and our Dinner and Dance Singapore service for higher-energy formats with live bands and dance floors. Some companies also combine their CNY dinner with a daytime team building session for a full CNY celebration day.

CNY Dinner Planning Timeline

Singapore's CNY dinner market has hard deadlines. Most companies that miss their preferred venue, entertainment date, or caterer availability started planning too late. The same applies to your full events calendar — if you're also planning a corporate retreat or family day for the same year, book early. Here's the timeline we recommend for CNY dinners:

• 6+ months out — Confirm internal headcount estimate and budget range. Identify preferred date. Begin venue shortlist and hold process for January/February events.
• 4–5 months out — Confirm venue. Secure lion dance troupe booking — top troupes fill CNY season months in advance. Begin programme concept development.
• 2–3 months out — Finalise programme rundown. Confirm entertainment, emcee, and lucky draw prize budget. Send Save the Date to staff.
• 1 month out — Confirm RSVPs and final headcount for catering. Complete AV brief and décor brief. Emcee script and lo hei ceremony script draft circulated for review.
• 1–2 weeks out — Site visit and AV walkthrough. Finalise lucky draw ballot system and prize collection. Brief all vendors on run-of-show.
• Event day — Venue setup, AV check, lion dance troupe arrival brief, full programme walk-through. Doors open.

"The lo hei and lion dance felt genuinely ceremonial — not like a box-ticking exercise. The team talked about the dinner for weeks. That's the standard we now hold all our company events to."

— Head of HR, Financial Services Company, Singapore

"Get Out Events managed everything — venue, lion dance, lucky draw, emcee, and a custom game show segment. We showed up, enjoyed the evening, and heard nothing but positive feedback from 200 colleagues."

— Regional Operations Director, MNC Singapore

Frequently Asked Questions